Identifying and Prioritizing Justice-Based Urban Management Development Strategies with an Emphasis on the City of Kashan

Introduction
Today's cities are considered as the greatest achievements of human culture and civilization. A justice-oriented perspective in terms of urban management form is one of the most fundamental pillars of urban governance. Accordingly, the present study aims to implement justice-based urban management strategies in the municipalities of Isfahan province with a focus on the city of Kashan. Cities have recently faced an undesirable cycle of socio-economic and environmental inequalities as a result of inefficient political, economic, and spatial policies; unprecedented challenges such as poverty, informal settlement, declining quality of life, income gaps, social disintegration, and injustice in the distribution of urban services, which have endangered the health and well-being of the urban communities, have created duality and imbalance in the space. Social justice has many definitions, but they all have one commonality--that governments have a duty to create equal political and social opportunities for all citizens--and this affirms the rights of people to receive social services from the state.
Methodology
One of the features of this research is the presentation of an applied model, especially the development of basic strategies for the realization of social justice in the municipality of Kashan. However, by examining the structures and functions of municipalities in Isfahan province, it can be concluded that municipalities have different textures and structures in terms of economic, social, political, cultural dimensions. However, it is certain that the achievement of social justice, of macro and general strategies such as the reformation of administrative structures, combating corruption, gender justice, and the promotion of urban diplomacy and urban regeneration are general and binding for all municipalities. The present study was an applied one in terms of purpose and a descriptive one in terms of method. The approach of this research was a qualitative-quantitative one. The statistical population of the study included all experts and experts in urban management. Its deployed Delphi--a systematic approach to obtain opinions and professional judgments from a group of experts on a topic or a question. In order to maintain the validity of the research and taking into account the drop of respondents during the study and after filtering and applying the desired indicators, a list of 21 people was announced. Based on the data obtained from the Delphi cycles and different parts of the questionnaire in each round, statistical indices, minimum maximum, mean, exponent, and standard deviation were calculated. The distribution of the questionnaire according to the Delphi method was done in three stages; in each stage, the items that had the condition of an average above 3 were presented in the next round, and the components with an average less than 3 were excluded from the following rounds of the questionnaire.
Results
Deploying Delphi, periods, statistical, minimum, maximum, mean, exponential and standard deviation indices were calculated. The distribution of the questionnaire was done in three stages, and in each stage the items that had the condition of the average game of 4 were brought in the second round. Items other than those were eliminated. Finally, the consensus of experts in each round was calculated.
Delphi first round
In this first round of the panel, 35 effective strategies on urban management with a social justice approach were identified with the average of game number 4; in total, 35 factors were proposed; since some factors were the same as the factors having been mentioned in the research background, they were removed or combined, and new factors were added for the next round.
Dom Delphi role
In this round, the panelists identified 25 factors from 35 components that had been analyzed in the previous studies, and the panel members who had had a great and high impact on the effective strategy on urban management with a social justice approach. As a result, a total of 25 factors were identified as high and very high; the average of less than 4 were excluded.
Third round of Delphi
In the third round, the panelists expressed their opinion on the effective strategy on urban management with a social justice approach. In this study, Delphi was conducted in three rounds, so that the standard deviation of the response of the panel members in the first round, regarding the importance of effective strategy on urban management with a social justice approach, was calculated 0.74. The value of the standard deviation in this round--as calculated by the consensus of experts--was 0.66; in the second round, the standard deviation was 0.54, and the Kendall coefficient was 0.74. Finally, in the third round, the standard deviation was 0.42, and the Kendall coefficient was also agreed upon. The consensus of experts was calculated to be 0.80.
Based on the results of the TOPSIS algorithm, the sub-indicators of central government decentralization, equal distribution of opportunities, transparency of contracts, creation of knowledge-based organizations, and integrated planning were the most influential components, having the first ranks in the research. Democratic organization, urban spatial justice and urban planning, implementation of municipal obligations to citizens, reform of organizational structures, and environmental quality were the factors that had the least impact on justice-based urban management strategies, respectively.
Conclusion
The results of this study showed that the strategic factors, affecting urban management based on social justice in Kashan Municipality were: reforming the organizational structure, confronting administrative corruption, applying gender justice, applying ways to improve the level of social welfare, applying strategies of legitimacy of urban management, promoting urban diplomacy, attracting, redistributing, and increasing the productivity of human resources, the fair distribution of wealth, urban design, and the regeneration as well as creation of a creative city enjoying entrepreneurship, intelligence, and accountability. The results were consistent with the studies of Eskandari et al. (2021), Kaman Roodi et al. (2021), Rajabi et al. (2020), Almasi et al. (2019), Bandarabad et al. (2018), Ahadnejad (2016), Yaghfouri and Kashefi (2016), and Bijkarak et al. (2018). Based on the results, it can be stated that in order to develop justice-based urban management, adopting strategies such as decentralization of central government, equal distribution of opportunities, the transparency of contracts, the creation of knowledge-based organizations, and integrated planning can be useful.